Leimone's chronicles

WELCOME !

2008-01-11T18:09:00.000-08:00

Rationale:
All disciplines in equestrian sports are based on the relationship between two beings: horses and riders. Often injuries curtail the development of this relationship and slow the training progress. Much attention has been placed on horse injuries and health issues (1000s research journal articles published) rather than rider injuries, especially injuries not based on accidents. This unbalanced distribution of attention is also seen in a cursory review of equestrian magazine covers where the majority (all actually) of health articles are horse based. It is hard to believe that riders, like any other athletes are not plagued with health challenges. Yet, no national or international association, medical research group, equestrian magazine seem to pay continuous attention to this topic. Rider health is ½ of the equation. To start address the disparity,Leimone’s chronicles has been created.

The main purpose of the Leimone’s chronicles is to bring attention to the topic of rider health challenges and to establish a conversation among all involved in equestrian sports. Furthermore, it will be interesting to survey how widespread rider injuries that are (accident based or not), and how these injuries affect training –physically and psychologically. The blog is especially interested in discussing the recovery process and the psychology of recovery.

Leimone’s chronicles is a blog based web conversation. It is managed by Leimone and regular posts will follow the progress of Leimone’s recovery from back pain (and training of her horse) as basis of developing a thread of conversation. Often guest bloggers will be invited to post.
Please let me know what you think and share your experiences...

Survey

2007-12-04T22:30:00.000-08:00

Ok here is a quick survey:
to take it press on comments on the bottom right.

2007-06-24T17:27:00.000-07:00

changing seats

2007-04-19T14:31:00.000-07:00

I am sorry everybody, I haven't posted anything for days.
As it turns out life is indeed funny, now its Lumpy turn to be sore. We went to the Virginia Equine Imaging (http://www.vaequine.com) this morning and we are doing a nuclear scintigraphy of his body on Monday. He is jumping weird to the right and does not want to "sit" on this haunches. It looks like he may have problems with his hip (sacroiliac joint - SI). So off I go to learn all about SI joints... wanna join in?
As for me, I have been a blob for the past 2 week, not PT, no running no NO nothing. The only exercise I got was playing racquetball with my husband yesterday.

Virginia Horse trials - Lexington

2007-04-11T18:08:00.000-07:00

April 1st : I am way behind on my blogging... sorry. So we went to Lexington for their starter horse trials. I thought it would be a nice first outing to test the back and the horse. He was very nervous when we were walking around and very happy to start warming up - sometimes walking just makes him more anxious. His Dressage warm up was FANTASTIC - 3 people came over to me to ask what kind of warmblood /morgan/ arabian cross he was (ah ah).
The moment he stepped in the ring he became tense - so the test was tight but obedient. I decided to just work on loosening him up and reassuring him (no fighting) and I think this was the right decision. All 8s and 7s with 3 6's around the walk where he stuck his head up in the air to look around and had a tight trot transition. We got a 30 - which I thought it was kind - with adulatory and encouraging comments but I guess that's what judges at schooling shows should do. For comparison I think other scores started at 34 (?). Its the first show of the season so I am not worried : I know we can do better !

Showjumping: I rode it like a hunter show: slow, concentrating on rhythm, relaxation, long turns etc etc. Only one minor hiccup in the end with a long spot, and a couple of going to the right but otherwise like a pro. I am not sure if I'll do it with the hackamore again though.

XC: what can I say? A blast. We need to work on startup box antics and slow down (time was 4:52 and we did it in 4:13). He was all business and I had no problems bringing him back when necessary - very obedient. And yes a few jumps were totally to the right, but I "set him straight" on the next jumps so there is hope. He didn't look at anything aside from "where is the next one?". This horse had more fun than me, he was eating it up. I though he would be concerned about some logs on top of the hill where we jumped onto the "void" but I was wrong.

Next post: you will hear how I forgot to jump the last jump in stadium and got eliminated last weekend after a 29 in dressage and awesome XC... stay tuned.

Things I can't do : part 1

2007-03-26T07:34:00.000-07:00

I can't put studs on my horse's shoes. No way. ouch! I learned the hard way yesterday. We did some gymnastic jumping concentrating on backing off and letting Lumpy figure out his feet and keep it all in one soft slow, nice rhythm. My husband calls my jumping sessions with Steph, marriage counselling : I am quiet and let him think for himself.
Speaking of husband, he will have to learn how to put studs for the weekend...

Rational

2007-03-23T18:40:00.000-07:00

Ever since my last posting I have been really sore. And I am getting suspicious that a major aggravating activity is not the cantering I do outback, nor the jumping gymnastic exercises, nor the sitting trot I trying to re-dignify. I ran on Monday and Wednesday, lifted weights on Tuesday and played 45 minutes of racquetball with my husband on Thursday. I hacked on Tuesday, did dressage on Wednesday, jumped on Thursday and did a 2 hour trail ride canter/trot set today. Tonight I am totally sore - but I was totally sore last night too... and the night before.It is hard to separate the variables and find the true culprit. All of these on themselves could be the source of my misery. However, I think the main difference this week has been the baby. I carried him this week more than usual, it was spring break and I wanted to spend more time with him. But I want someone to call me on my rationalization that riding is ok, that exercising is fine and that the real cause of my pain is carrying around my baby on my hip. Rationalizing or not, it makes me quite sad.

First show after back injury!

2007-03-18T17:35:00.000-07:00

It has been almost 9 months since our last outing. Hard to believe! time flies when your back hurts - actually no, I am wrong - time is very very very slow. Today we did the 3 footer division at the Marlborough pony club to check and see where we are. I am happy to say that Lumpy has picked up exactly where we left off. He was all game - what a good boy, I forgot he could fly.... overdid it a bit by jumping the 3'3s as if they were 4 footers, but that's ok. Not a bad problem to have. It was very cold and windy but as you can tell I got special help with the trailer (and he is only 18 months!). I must admit my back is sore tonight, but its not so bad. I still think it is the trailer gate - so if you have a good step up trailer for sale let me know. We hung around a little bit to get our ribbons, which started me thinking, are ribbons important ? I would like to know your thoughts... I spent some time thinking about this on the drive back.
Off to dinner and PT exercises.

Ask the expert part 2 : Dr. Cesar Parra

2007-03-15T12:21:00.000-07:00

I can't even tell you all how exciting it is that Dr. Cesar Parra took the time to write for the blog.
For those who do not know who he is, Cesar is one of the most exciting Dressage riders competing in the world right now. Under his belt he has the 2004 Olympic Games, 2005 world cup in Las Vegas, 2006 WEG in Aachen, along with team silver at the Pan Am games and winning various Grand Prix at Devon.

Check out what Cesar has to say about riding, injury and fitness by clicking on comments link below on the right...

And leave your own comment!

Cheers
Daphne

jump jump jump

2007-03-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

We jumped jumped jumped this weekend with Waredaca's best kept secret: Robert Butts. It was great - well, Robert was great we were embarrassing (but getting better !). The weather was nice and for some odd reason nobody was riding, so I got a private with Robert - Lucky me. I am considering trying to bribe him sometime this week for another lesson with a Brazilian dessert... he is hard to catch !
My back is doing fine and not even the pneumonia (yes, pneumonia - I told you I was sick: what a crappy winter...) raised its ugly head. All is calm.... aaahhhhhh...

ask'd the expert Part 1 : Dr. Karen Sexton

2007-03-08T17:35:00.000-08:00

Having the flu is great. You get to cough and neglect your exercises and take drugs that make you sleep -even if the baby is crying. But for me is even better because I actually have time to email my friends and bug them about our favorite subject: strain on rider's bodies.
Here you go click on the comments button on the bottom right to see what Dr. Karen Sexton has to say.

And feel free to post your own comments and questions... we may even coax Dr. S to answer a few of them !

cheers

Daphne

you.

2007-03-05T07:17:00.000-08:00

Well, hello you.

I know you are there.
I know it because my computer pings at me saying you visited this blog.
I know you are in Englewood, Colorado; Santa Clara, California; Culpeper, Virginia; Unity, Maine; Louisville, Kentucky; Urbana, Illinois; Camp Dennison, Ohio; Tavares, Florida...just to mention a few. Are you silent because you are only peripherally interested in this topic of discussion? are you silent because you are young fit and healthy and never got hurt? Am I the only one one with "repetitive sitting trot syndrome" ? Do you ride in a western saddle and are secretly laughing at all of us ? Are you shy? .... don't worry you can comment anonymously.

Let me hear from you. This is a warm invitation to leave a comment anywhere in the blog. Even if it just a note to say you are well, and happily riding.

Best wishes... always.

Daphne

little break

2007-03-04T22:52:00.000-08:00

It is amazing what a little bit of vomiting and fever does to an otherwise determined mind. I officially have the flu and therefore all physical activities (aside from working on my computer, but I guess this is only physical to my fingers) are out the window.

more soon...
Daphne

discouragement

2007-03-01T10:44:00.000-08:00

Saturday was so nice that we rode outside. I cheated on Gretchen (who is Florida) and rode with Steuart Pittman (we met at the T3D last year at Waredaca). From his arena I could see XC jumps sprouting around the surrounding grass field like pesky dandelions. Lumpy was great- calm quiet and perfectly mannered - like towards the end of show season, not what I would have expected after 6 months not going anywhere.

He wanted to see me jumping normally before making comments. He then told me that he thought Lumpy was a bit explosive and that I should my seat less before a jump. So I jumped mostly on 2 point and worked on being minimalistic with my derrière - not too challenging but quite different for me. I liked that we worked on maintaining the same rhythm before and after the jump.

The lesson was really fun but my back was totally busted by the end of the day. I had to float in the hot tub to recover... I suspect (or chose to believe?) that riding was not the problem - but that pulling that damn trailer gate up and down was the culprit. Sunday I was still in pain and so bummed I didn't even want to write on the blog. All those weeks of exercise and PT, sacrifice, and... wham! (not the 80's rock group).

So I started slowly Monday, Tuesday... felt better on Wednesday and by today I am ok. Gosh it takes forever to recover from set backs at 35 ! Only blind bullheadedness kept me going this week. Lumpy looked tired too... but tonight: Dressage or burst!

fat galore

2007-02-22T18:31:00.000-08:00

In my new state of (hopefully) recovering back pain victim, ex-pregnant woman and fitness enlightened rider I have decided to officially start taking exercising classes. I am determined to try to go to the 2007 wellpride eventing championships in September - I think it would be just sooooo fun - and it would be a good endpoint from my journey that started in December (when I could not even walk).

So the challenge is not just how to fit Gym visits in my schedule but what do I wear! I went to my first group fitness class today and since my gym is in a major university, the sports center is populated by fit young bodies. Fortunately, even in this flabby state I am not shy to show it off (the Brazilian genes, I guess). With that said, I chose to no longer wear the skin tight shinny spandex - there are some shapes of some parts of myself that I prefer not to face. So sweats and t-shirt it was. But much to my surprise things have changed a lot since I was last in an aerobics class (remember jazzercise?). Today my mat was among a group of young women, who were obviously muslim, and were totally, modestly, covered - even hair. I am not sure what some of the shapes of the some of their selves were, but they were up there chugging along just like me. Heck, if they can do this without exposing a single pore, so can I in my cut off sweats! I was the oldest in the class without a doubt, but I was not in the bottom of the fitness scale... comforting for me.

The hard data came in later in the locker room: I weighed myself. I am 20 (let me spell it out T-W-E-N-T-Y) pounds heavier than pre-baby. No wonder my back is busted! My poor horse, he had to haul around all this extra Daphne in XC all last summer. But then again if I am able to shift this lard correctly I may be able to have more effective seat aids in Dressage :)

I am not sore today.... not at all - back is doing great.

Peripherally related to my back

2007-02-19T19:19:00.000-08:00

...only perhaps in the sense that I still have all that baby weight from 18 months ago...
I couldn't resist putting this picture of my son and his pony on the blog. I hope he gets the horse disease just like his mom.

everyday

2007-02-19T19:00:00.000-08:00

I have been riding everyday in the wee hours in the morning (my horse it is totally indoor ring sour, hugh .... snow...) AND I went to the Gym today again (!). I decided to do something physically healthy everyday from now on (aside PT) - it doesn't have to be much, but it has to be everyday (yesterday I did sets of tightening my abdominal muscles in the car while stuck in traffic). I think I am going to a jumper show next weekend. Pain ? yes but manageable.

fitness

2007-02-16T19:30:00.000-08:00

So, now that I am a bit more educated about sports injury issues, the picture is becoming clearer that fitness in general (Gretchen and I chatted about this a while ago, but sometimes it takes me a little while to really digest stuff and fully comprehend its implications ) may be and closely related to injury. It appears that amateur riders (my fat ass included) do not keep fit enough by riding 1 hour a day 6x a week. This is really a hairy issue, I can't imagine coming up to my fellow average ammy, who is trying to balance family, career and riding: and say, hey you now need to fit in exercising in your schedule otherwise you won't improve your riding AND the probability of you getting hurt goes up ! Gosh I am not sure if I want to face this with a 10ft pole. But it looks like its true...

I have noticed that the fitness issue has not come unnoticed by the enterprising horse industry : books on yoga and riding, fitness consultant adds on the magazines, Horse Riding Fitness Equipment. Is this all commercialism? My skeptic brain just looks at all these and thinks : no way I need an artificial horse to ride my horse better. Does any of this work? Horse yoga??!! I am not sure if this is not just people trying to make a buck and not addressing the real issue of fitness. Its like selling magic diet pills to people who should just stop eating bon bons for a while. Has anyone had a good experience with any of these? I am willing to be convinced with good evidence.

In the end, it just really pees me off that training for training level is not enough to ride well AT training level ! So off to the Gym I go. AND maybe I'll stretch before hoping on.

snow

2007-02-14T20:07:00.000-08:00

You folks down south try to contain your jealousy...

Doc's note

2007-02-14T19:23:00.000-08:00

So I convinced my MD to blog something on Lemone's ! stay tuned, I even got a MRI picture coming...

Jumping

2007-02-11T19:45:00.000-08:00

Yeay! it has been almost 4 months since I last jumped. I was so happy this morning to buddy up with my new eventing pals and do a fun grid. Robert gave us a great lesson -it was a blast. Lumpy was a red rocket but he was also his usual entertaining self (I often see him as a lab retriever asking: are you going to toss the ball now? now? how about now? is now good ? now? ) The whole hour was beautiful: I smiled, I made mistakes, we all laughed about needing better brakes. It is just so nice to ride with others who are as excited as me about being on top of a horse, frozen, at 8:30 on a Sunday am.

Now is evening. Now is time to pay up. Maybe this is what getting broken is all about : the price. Tonight in the menu we have an expensive tingling down the left leg accompanied by soreness on the lower back. Will I tell Gretchen that I am in pain? no sirry bob.

I rationalize all these misadventures on testing the boundaries of what I can do. I don't know what I can or can't do, and I have a limited amount of time on these disks so I gotta explore. I would hate to "under ride" for fear of injury - although I would hate to "over ride" too. But the latter is easier to tell because I hurt. The former is more elusive... how do you tell ??!!
.

I sat the trot today...

2007-02-01T19:17:00.000-08:00

I sat the trot today. That intimidating event that any beginner dreads to do in public was for me and my 30-horse-riding-years outright frightening. But Lumpy was feeling like silk and I really wanted that shoulder in right. My innards shook, my spine vibrated - perhaps it was too soon. But we made it in 3 tracks: relaxed, slightly bent around my inside leg, and steady. I did it again a couple more times to make sure it wasn't just luck.

Degenerative disc disease sucks - point blank. Back pain su-u-ucks. Riding is all about partnership, about about communication and ultimately 2 acting as one. How can it be then, that there is just so much attention in this industry to horse health and little to no attention being paid to rider health? And I don't mean to say that attention is not paid to people falling on theirs heads, or getting kicked in the groin or whatever - these are traumatic events. I mean why aren't talking about repetitive strain HUMAN injury in the horse world? As an academe I was not able to find a single reputable medical article on this. I know I am pounding on this again and again.

Well, I am home now and yes my back hurts. Anti-inflammatories here I go. Will I try again tomorrow ? absolutely. Is it dumb ? definitely. Do you blame me?

35

2007-01-26T08:08:00.000-08:00

As of today, and until next year, I will be 35 years old.

The value of regular consistent work

2007-01-23T19:25:00.000-08:00

We ride everyday. And every time we ride we get just the tiniest better - that is why we have to train all the time to get "that" much better. It is a simple principle: a lot of a little bit will give you a lot in the end. It works for calories in a diet, it works for money in the quarter jar. Why then, can't I get it through my thick skull that every PT session counts ? Twice a day I have to do this. It is just SO hard to do it! I am late for work : I am tired from work. The baby is asleep : the baby is awake. My computer beckons me ; humm... my computer beckons me. All these small, mundane daily task often get in the way of my boring PT exercises.

I must say that despite my science background, I find myself poopooing my PT sessions. Yeah, missing one won't reeally make a difference. But it is obvious that it works - not only because my back hurts less when I am consistent - but also there are biological studies that show it works.

OK back to the floor.

history of low back pain

2007-01-13T23:35:00.000-08:00

I found this interesting article by Rajeev K Patel, MD,University of Rochester - Strong Memorial Health System and Curtis W Slipman, MD, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center

Here I am only putting the introduction, which I found interesting...

Descriptions of treatment for low back pain (LBP) date to Hippocrates (460-370 BCE), who reported joint manipulation and use of traction. Onset of LBP often is associated with bipedal ambulation. Theories propose that this transformation in the mechanics of locomotion is the inciting evolutionary event that made the lumbar spine susceptible to degenerative disease. Degeneration is universal to structures that comprise the functional spinal unit, composed of 2 adjacent vertebral bodies and the intervertebral disk. The disk and 2 zygapophyseal joints at the same level function as a trijoint complex.
As humans age, they endure both macrotraumas and microtraumas and undergo changes in body habitus that alter and redistribute biomechanical forces unevenly on the lumbar spine. Natural progression of degeneration of the lumbar segment with motion proceeds with characteristic anatomic, biomechanical, radiologic, and clinical findings in lumbar degenerative disk disease (LDDD).

I suppose it is comforting to know that this may be an intrisic problem of being human! I am sure that years of sitting trot did not help me. One would think that a quadruped (like my horse) would have more opportunities for back pain since gravity would tend to bring a "sag" in the middle... no?

Counting beans

2007-01-12T00:11:00.000-08:00

I now look at things in terms of Steph-Riding-Hours. Dinner in this restaurant costs 2 SRH, my truck takes 2 1/2 SRH to fill up, if only I had 15 minutes of SRH in my pocket I could have that mochachino at starbucks…

pride

2007-01-11T21:58:00.000-08:00

So pride is a bad thing in some belief systems. Fortunately for me, I am pretty free of those mental hang ups. So, I am proud. I should say I was proud – proud to have taken my skinny thoroughbred from the racetrack as a bebe and made a partnership that can do a quite decent 1st level dressage and not choke in 3’6 -3’9 courses.
So it is really hard to ask for help and have someone else ride him.
It is hard because in the past I was the one who would ride other people’s horses, I was the one who trained during the week, so other people’s kids could compete on the weekends. At the time, I intimately thought less of those people, like they were not really passionate about the sport.
Now here I am, feeling all posh and paying for someone to ride my horse. Time to reevaluate my judgmental days of yesteryears… Proud and maybe wrong.
In reality, boy am I lucky to have help. Can you imagine if I were not riding with someone I trusted? Now I share my chestnut with Steph until I get better. She teaches him new moves in the indoor twice a week, while I do my little PT on the living room floor twice a day. And I must say once I recovered from the initial awkwardness (somehow in my head having someone ride my horse is like having someone wear one of my old pairs of underwear… they quickly find out where the embarrassing holes are…), it has actually become quite fun to share training strategies with someone.

Do you share your training? who else rides your horse?

intro to physical therapy

2007-01-10T22:55:00.000-08:00

My first session of physical therapy! I was late, my 1 1/2year old son had to go with me, I forgot to change from my gardening slippers and I was hungry. All and all a good start - especially because I was having a really bad back day (I considered calling the doc for another set of steroids).

The rehab center I am going to is very exciting. It looks like a gym, with all kinds of mirrors, sports machines and people in shorts with little towels, sweating, pushing and pulling things while being observed by other people (not in shorts) taking notes. My son immediately spotted a box full of very large brightly colored balls.

My son and I went into a small, bright room with wide vertical blinds (it was drizzling outside). We hang out on the special blue vinyl covered PT bed ( you know, the ones with the hole for the nose so you can face down) while my son carefully shredded the paper that covered the pillow. We waited for Laura.

And there she was ! What a happy cheerful person….Laura, who was very very pregnant, examined me thoroughly. I walked on my tippi toes, on my heels, then she moved my legs in all kinds on directions. Satisfied with what she learned, Laura decided to create a training program. Twice a day I will have to do these exercises (more details later). They are all easy really, more importantly can I do it consistently…

To finish up I was hooked to the fabulous machine. On my back, a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator was attached to relieve stiffness, improve mobility, and relieve pain. I am very intrigued about the mechanism which it uses but more so about how good it felt (so probably more about this later too). Ding ding ding, 15 minutes were up, the alarm rang, someone new came into the room to detach me and my little darling toddler darted off in to the gym.

Anyone doing PT for anything? Do you know this machine? Do you keep up to date on your schedule?

Personal introduction

2007-01-09T20:10:00.000-08:00

I have ridden all my life. I don't remember ever not being near a horse. My family has owned horses for generations - my mom was a very successful show jumper. I have jumped and done dressage for a long time.
Recently I had a baby. I have a job that keeps me mildy comfortable and a superb husband. I have an awesome horse and we are ready for big time.

But now I have been diagnosed with degenerative disc disease. In retrospect I could have seen this coming, years of sitting trot and pains ingnored here and there. My back is sore, my left leg tingles, my right knee throbs starting a few hours after a ride. So I don't (for now). It is not going to get better, I can only slow the degeneration. So I am on a mission - to be healthy as long as possible and search to be the best rider I can be. I want my craft to be refined... but tic toc tic toc.

After MRIs and Xrays my physician today suggested the conservative approach as long as possible so to avoid surgery. He understands... he is a jumper himself. I am not to be on a horse for the next 2 weeks and we are doing steroids and physical therapy for the next 6 weeks and then reevaluating the situation. Let's see how this goes...

I am determined to learn as much as I can about my injury and I want to find you, out there, who have the same kind of problems. How do you deal with being hurt ?